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Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi Booklet

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Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi Booklet Zechariah material by Travis Wise (except where noted) Haggai, Malachi material by Scott Kercheville Name:__________________________ 1 CLASS SCHEDULE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS DATE CONTENT PAGE (6/2) LESSON 1: The Charge to Rebuild (Haggai 1-2) pg. 3 (6/9) LESSON 2: A Plea to Return (Zechariah 1:1-6) pg. 4 (6/16) LESSON 3: How Long O Lord? (Zechariah 1:7-2:13) pg. 5 (6/23, 6/30) LESSON 4: Two Witnesses (Zechariah 3-4) pg. 6-7 (7/7) LESSON 5: Judgment (Zechariah 5-6) pg. 8 (7/14) LESSON 6: To Feast or Fast (Zechariah 7-8) pg. 9 (7/21) LESSON 7: The Return of the King (Zechariah 9-10) pg. 10-11 (7/28) LESSON 8: Good Shepherd, Bad Shepherd (Zechariah 11) pg. 12 (8/4) LESSON 9: The God Who Was Pierced (Zechariah 12:1-13:6) pg. 13 (8/11) LESSON 10: The Return of the King (Zechariah 13:7-14:21) pg. 14-15 (8/18) LESSON 11: Give Honor to My Name (Malachi 1:1-2:9) pg. 16 (8/25) LESSON 12: Preparing the Way for God (Malachi 2:10-4:6) pg. 17 N/A Relevant Works on Zechariah (by Travis Wise) pg. 18-19 N/A Appendix: Notes from George Klein’s Zechariah Commentary pg. 20-27 2 LESSON 1: THE CHARGE TO REBUILD (HAGGAI 1-2) “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” Israel and Judah broke their covenant with Yahweh, so he scattered them among the nations. Jerusalem was an embarrassing pile of rubble. But the prophets had promised that one day the people would return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city. The shame of Jerusalem would be gone. The city would dwell secure forever. In 539 BC, Cyrus King of Persia declared that the Hebrews could return to rebuild their temple. Led in part by Zerubbabel (governor of Judah, descendent of David) and Jeshua (high priest, descendent of Zadok), over 42,000 people returned to rebuild. But external forces caused work on the temple to cease. It is important for modern readers to grasp how discouraging these years were. Just when they thought they were on the brink of a glorious future, all earthly powers turned against them. Sustained hope had not existed in Jerusalem for many years. Ezra 5:1-2 sheds light on what happened next in 520 BC. After ffteen years of nothing, God’s Spirit roused the remnant to work through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. What did these prophets see and say that encouraged this remnant so much? 1. (1:1-11) Haggai’s frst message came on August 29th in 520 BC. The people don’t think they have the time or resources to rebuild, but they don’t realize they have so little because they haven’t taken the time to rebuild. Do you ever have the mindset Haggai points out here? How and in what ways? 2. (1:12-2:9) The people started work on September 21st, 520 BC. A month later, Haggai came with another message on October 17th. The former temple was destroyed in 586 BC and some were still alive who had seen it. They thought this latter temple was turning out to be nothing in comparison to the former one. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is now building us together as God’s temple. Hebrews 12:25f tells us that once more God will shake not just the earth, but the heavens also. Then, the latter glory of God’s temple will be greater than the former. Considering this promise, do you ever fnd it easy to slip into the mindset of the people here? How and in what ways? Based Haggai’s encouragement, what all do we need to remind ourselves and others of in times like these? 3. (2:10-19) Three months into the work, Haggai came with another message on December 18th. The land had yielded nothing, so the people were probably quite nervous. The purpose of his message is to help them understand why their fortunes were about to change. Explain the logic of Haggai’s example and argument. What modern signifcance does Haggai’s argument have for us today? Refections on 2:20-23. The Lord promises to soon shake up heaven and earth. Kingdoms would be overthrown and Zerubbabel would become God’s signet ring. The image of a signet ring represents divine authority. God had said Jeconiah (Zerubbabel’s grandfather) could have been his signet ring, but God ripped him of his fnger (Jeremiah 22:24-30). Hopes for an eternal Davidic king were bleak. Though Zerubbabel didn’t usher in the triumph of this text, he is a representative fgure that points to the restoration of the Davidic promise in Jesus (similar to David in Ezek. 34:23-24). It is no surprise that Zerubbabel is mentioned in Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1:12-13. God uses “soon” language and representative fgures like Zerubbabel and Jeshua to keep eschatalogical hopes alive in each generation. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised” (Heb. 11:39). As people of Jesus, we work alongside this remnant - hoping in King Jesus’ swift coming to bring judgment and complete our work. 3 LESSON 2: A PLEA TO RETURN (ZECHARIAH 1:1-6) “Return to me and I will return to you,” says the Lord In the year 520 B.C., during the month of November, the prophet Zechariah stepped into his role of speaking to the remnants of Israel on behalf of the Lord. Addressing the Jews who had just returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile in Babylon, Zechariah, along with Haggai (Ezra 5:1), encouraged the people to rebuild what had been lost—namely the temple—from when God had brought judgment against their prior generations through the Babylonians. Two months earlier Haggai had urged the Jews who had returned to rebuild the temple. Now, Zechariah explored the reasons how the rebuilt temple would be important in a Jewish nation that was still under foreign control. Since the book of Zechariah is known more for the eight bizarre night visions of the frst half, and for the inscrutable apocalyptic scenes of the last half, one pervading question that the book asks can often be missed: Will God’s children return to Him, and if they do not, then what next? The book begins with this at the very start as God pleads with his people to “return to me and I will return to you” (Zech 1:3-4). Though the Jews may have physically returned to Jerusalem, God will not fully be with them and work His promises through them until they return to Him in heart and mind as well (chapter 7 will revisit this theme two years later to see if they have, and chapters 9-14 will address what happens next). For us, as the church, 2500 years after Zechariah, the question is still the same: if we are expecting God to be with us in what we do, have we fully committed ourselves to him? 1. What is the mark of someone who has returned to the Lord? How would a return to the Lord be visible in your life (in your family, at work, school, or play, as a neighbor, to strangers, with those of a diferent faith, or a diferent political party, etc.)? 2. In what way did God’s words and statutes “overtake” (Zech 1:6 ESV, NASB) the fathers of the Jews Zechariah is addressing? In what ways will God’s words and statutes overtake us—in the present age as well as in the age to come—if we do not give heed to them? 3. There are a few big questions that the prophet Zechariah asks in his book. One pervasive question throughout the book of Zechariah is: How long before the Lord returns to His people? What is the answer to that question in these verses? 4. In the Bible, the majority of the prophets begin their prophecies by dating them to the reign of a king (Isa 1:1, Jer 1:1-2, Hos 1:1, Amos 1:1, etc.). What is signifcant about Haggai and Zechariah being unique among the prophets in that they date their prophecies in the frst verse to the reign of King Darius of Persia instead of dating them to an Israelite or Judean king? 4 LESSON 3: HOW LONG O LORD? (ZECHARIAH 1:7–2:13) “O Lord of Hosts, how long will you have no mercy?” (Visions 1, 2 and 3) On the heels of the prophet’s brief opening, Zechariah wastes little time introducing the bizarreness that makes his book unique within the Bible. Throughout the frst six chapters, Zechariah experiences a series of eight dreamlike visions in the night. The frst of these visions occurs precisely on the night of February 15, 519 B.C., and as to whether the following visions are experiences during the same night, or in subsequent nights, we are left to wonder. Prophetic visions are nothing unique within the Bible—Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Amos (among others) all have their fair share—but outside of Daniel and John in his Revelation, no other prophet matches the consistent slideshow of Zechariah’s. Thankfully for Zechariah (as well as for the reader), an interpreting angel accompanies him throughout his night visions, and yet, unfortunately, often the angel’s interpretations of Zechariah’s visions open up even more questions as to the meaning.
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